ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 20 Jun) – Three people have already died and more than a dozen others hospitalized due to diseases in the southern Filipino port city of Zamboanga, health officials said.
Dr Ricardo Angeles, head of the local epidemiology and surveillance unit, suspected viral gastroenteritis as the cause of the death of one of the victim. All the victims, from the remote village of Limpapa, suffered diarrhea.
“It may due to viral gastroenteritis,” he said.
The first death was reported June 8 and ten other villagers were also rushed to hospital. This was followed by two more deaths on June 17, Angeles said, adding, three more patients, also from the same village, had been rushed to the hospital.
Gastroenteritis is an acute infectious syndrome of the stomach lining and intestines and health experts said the symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal cramps.
Angeles allayed fears of cholera outbreak. Dozens of people were also suffering from dengue fever in Zamboanga City, but television reports put the numbers at around 200.
Angeles said they have raised the dengue alert because of the rainy weather.
“We are on an alert level because cases of dengue continue to accelerate, as expected on the onset of rainy season. But we are still on the border line, the rise in dengue cases is not so overwhelming for public to panic,” he said.
The Department of Health said it recorded more than 7,000 cases of dengue in the country since early this year. Last year, more than 6,800 people suffered from dengue.
Dengue is an infectious tropical disease caused by an arbovirus transmitted by mosquitoes, and characterized by high fever, rash, headache, and severe muscle and joint pain. (Mindanao Examiner)
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